A nearly 4GB update for Aliens: Colonial Marines on PC should begin rolling out on Steam this afternoon.

This update contains the changes that were in the recent update for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, along with some additional changes that will be part of future updates for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This update also includes several PC-specific changes, notably: improved texture resolution, various visual improvements, the addition of a mouse smoothing option, and some fixes for PC-only crashes.

As this update is rather large (nearly 4GB) those players with limited or bandwidth-capped access may want modify their auto-update settings by right-clicking Aliens: Colonial Marines in their Steam Library, choosing Properties and selecting the Updates tab.

Quote:

3/18/2013 Update

General

Improved texture resolution.
Various visual improvements.
Added mouse smoothing to options menu.
Fixed crashes tied to launch and motion tracker.
Added additional safeguards to better protect save data.
Resolved an issue where a player's level could sometimes appear incorrect when backing out of a party.
Addressed several scenarios under which players could spawn without a weapon.
Changes to better prevent audio from sometimes cutting out during end of mission cinematics.
Fixed issue where Xeno death animation was not properly calculating momentum of the killing blow.
Smart Gun animation now properly tracks targets.
Addressed some instances where Xenos would display erratic animations.
Increased light radius for player's shoulder lamp.
Adjusted aim assist to better reflect player input.
Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause co-op player revival to not work under certain circumstances.
Addressed issues with players not spawning into a level properly.
Fixed a marine player invincibility exploit.
Resolved several instances where players could walk or fall outside of maps.
Addressed an issue where Ripley’s Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input.
Fixed an issue that could cause localized text to sometimes display incorrectly.
Addressed an issue where weapon ammunition was not always highlighted properly.
General user interface improvements.
Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Campaign

Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive.
Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness.
Improved enemy collision detection regarding doors and Power Loader.
Addressed some issues that could cause improper warping for co-op players.
Various tweaks to address instances where NPC characters would not always properly navigate to objectives.
Players will no longer bleed out immediately when downed in a Power Loader.

Versus

Fixed issues that could cause clients to report inaccurate results and statistics.
Addressed instances where a map would appear to “pop in” when loading into a new match.
New Xeno appearance customization added.
Multiplayer teams should now correctly auto-balance between rounds.
Increased duration of Lurker Pounce Challenge “Cat-Like Reflexes” from 10 to 20 seconds.
Fixed issue where certain multiplayer challenges would not unlock properly for all characters.
Crusher pick-ups now correctly appear as highlighted for clients.

2/11/2013 Update

General

General user interface improvements.
Various performance improvements.
Fixed issue where a door may not function properly if a Xeno was killed while opening it.
Addressed issue where players could become stuck in a close encounter after killing a Lurker that had pounced them.
Fixed collision issue where bullets would not pass through certain open doorways.
Fixed an issue related to clients incorrectly interrupting Xeno melee encounters.
Addressed an issue where doors would sometimes not open properly.
Addressed an exploit where players could melee while throwing a grenade or placing a claymore.
Fixed some collision detection issues that could result from a close encounter.
Prevented campaign pop-ups from appearing outside of campaign.

Campaign

Fixed an issue that could prevent NPCs from getting on the elevator in the Sulaco.
NPCs no longer attempt to open doors while being welded.
Fixed issue where Raven could sometimes pass through welded door.
Implementing a message to warn players that campaign progress will be overwritten if they try to start an offline campaign game from within the co-op campaign UI.
Adjusted the distance between players before they're warped to the location of furthest player in co-op.
Fixed issue where torch would sometimes appear incorrectly to co-op clients.
Fixed issue where difficulty could sometimes become stuck incorrectly after switching modes.
Fixed issue where co-op player would not recover properly after being saved from a close encounter.
Fixed issue where Russian players could not drop into a co-op match in some missions.
Updated late-game close encounter moment to disable player input, which could cause them to become stuck.

Versus

Resolved issue where campaign Motion Tracker could incorrectly in multiplayer loadouts.
Fixed issue where clients would sometimes be invisible after spawning in No Hope in Hadleys.
Multiplayer teams are now randomized (parties excluded) if percentage difference in scores is greater than 15%
'Switch Teams' option removed from the Pause menu.
Corrected issue where server and client could get out-of-sync when switching out of a power-up while firing.
Fixed issue where controller would vibrate during the scores screen if Rage ability was active upon match end.
Fixed issue where Cloak ability would not conceal the Lurker when walking or jogging.
Corrected bug where clients appeared to spawn outside of world before match start.
Removed placeholder text from appearing on scoreboard in certain situations.
Improved camera transition when Xeno enters a vent.
Fixed issue where Xenomorph HUD could sometimes appear in the wrong color.
Fixed issue with Spitter acid sometimes preventing players from deploying a Sentry Turret for a short while.
Spitter's "Acid Spray" now originates from the mouth.
Escape: Fixed issue where Xenos could spawn in unplayable space.
Escape: Fixed issue where Xeno players could lose functionality if warped to next area while in a vent.
Escape: Addressed issues where players would spawn with no weapon if they were the last Marine to die in Escape.
Escape: Fixed issue where Cat-Like Reflexes ability would not properly complete in an Escape match.
Escape: Improved timing and placement of warp locations in Emergency Evac map.

Wow just re-installed the game with the new patch and started a new game.

Massive, Massive improvement from before, Game looks more like the demo we where shown now, Better shadows, Higher res textures, Better lighting, Bugs fixed and much better A.I now too, Seems they significantly increased the difficulty in the campaign.

Umbilical glass shattering at the beginning just like in demo vids too.

Downside though is they added film grain, A little too much for my liking and cant find no way to turn it down/off.

EDIT:-

Quote:

From ChrisF (GBX Community Manager) on the gearbox forums:

"Thanks for the feedback thus far, all. Will be passing it on to the team, particularly as it relates to film grain not having a toggle."

You can install the Direct x10 patch the SweetFX Shader Suite and mess with the settings in the SweetFX Configurator to get the game looking a little better.

BTW, those mod files I think are being overwritten by steam when you try to run the game because the next time I ran the game after installing the dx11 final mod, it had to download for a minute before running. So I am not sure if those mods actually can work now I mean. back when the game was 1st released the mod would have worked for sure.

BTW, Has anyone tried playing the game with 3d vision. Take a look at my specs in the sig. 3d vision take more of a performance hit in aliens colonial marines than metro last light. I can barely get a playable frame rate with it in 3d vision and geforce experience settings. If I turn off 3d vision, smooth as butter. And metro: last light with 3d vision on and with geforce experience settings, smooth as butter. Doesn't make sense other than metro: last light is a 3d vision ready game and aliens colonial marines is a fair rated game for 3d vision.